Thanks, Kenbalberi &amp; Highway. I'm returning the A550 to Kit's today and will see what they have. I checked Staples yesterday and they had the SD630, not the A630, for $219 (after $50 rebate, which is good for any digital camera). I'm kind of leaning towards the A560 b/c of DIGIC III &amp; red-eye reduction and I honestly don't know if I would ever come close to using the A630's full capabilities. What do people think of Kodak cameras, like the C875? No optical viewfinder but 5x zoom and a 2.5" screen (don't know resolution).

Highway: Tulalip (Indian Reservation)is about 50 miles north of Seattle on I-5. If you know where Marysville is, Tulalip is on the West side of the freeway. They have a casino, "Seattle" ( :lolPremium Outlet mall and an amphitheater.

Thanks, Kenbalberi &amp; Highway. I'm returning the A550 to Kit's today and will see what they have. I checked Staples yesterday and they had the SD630, not the A630, for $219 (after $50 rebate, which is good for any digital camera). I'm kind of leaning towards the A560 b/c of DIGIC III &amp; red-eye reduction and I honestly don't know if I would ever come close to using the A630's full capabilities. What do people think of Kodak cameras, like the C875? No optical viewfinder but 5x zoom and a 2.5" screen (don't know resolution).

Highway: Tulalip (Indian Reservation)is about 50 miles north of Seattle on I-5. If you know where Marysville is, Tulalip is on the West side of the freeway. They have a casino, "Seattle" ( :lol: )Premium Outlet mall and an amphitheater.

The A630 uses the 1/1.8" sensor, so should have better IQ (image quality) than the A560, which uses a smaller (1/2.5") sensor.

Personally, from the sample images I have seen, there is no advantage in terms of IQ for the Digic III processor over Digic II. One review I read mentioned the A550 (or was it 560?) used a bit too much jpeg compression.

I had the Kodak C875 for about 2 months, and it was a pretty nice camera. My main complaint with it was that some images were either compressed too much or the noise reduction was too aggressive; certain portions of photos that should have been very sharp had a smeared appearance. Too bad, as the sensor seemed decent and the lens was sharp.

Well, the A550 is now out of my life for good. I had 6 images on it's 16 MB card and was trying to transfer them via USB to my computer using MS' Scanner &amp; Camera Wizard. After a few unsuccessful attempts I decide to give in and install Canon's s/w (I forget what it's called). When the Canon CD started I got a message telling me that the screen resolution was not sufficient to execute the transfer (or words to that effect). I boxed everything up and drove to Kit's in Everett and got the pics burned to a CD for $6 ( :X).

After looking at a number of cameras in the $250 &amp; under category with a very nice &amp; patient Sales Associate, the two finalists were the Pentax M20 and the Samsung S850. He was very impressed with the S850 (and the M20, too) but when I asked him which one he would choose he said it would be the Samsung. They were both $199 and I liked the hand grip of the Samsung so I'm going to give it a try. My Eneloops are charging as I write this so I'll play with it later or tomorrow.

I looked at the A630, SD630 and Fuji E900 while I was at Kit's. If I could get the E900 for around $250 I think that would be the way to go. The A630 seemed like way too much camera for me, I'd probably only usea thirdof it's capabilities.

I've had a couple of Canons, but never used the software. What screen resolution do you run your PC at?

Don't worry about only using a "thirdof it's capabilities" when choosing a camera. More capability than you need is fine; it's the inverse that is a problem!

What makes you think the A630 is more of a camera than the Fuji E900. The E900 is often considered Fuji's answer the the Canon A6x0 series cameras, and even includes RAW capability, which the Canons do not.

BTW, I do know from experience with 3 different Canon Powershot A-series cameras (A85, A520 and A620) that Canon's "Auto" mode is about as good as you can expect. From my (limited) experience, Sony does a good job with Auto mode, also.

I'm interested to see what you think of the Samsung S850; Samsung cameras tend to get hammered in reviews, as do some of the Pentax models. Remember, though, no matter what the "professional" reviews say, the most important review is yours.

I was trying my best not to use Canon's s/w but after a half dozen attempts with Microsoft's Scanner &amp; Camera Wizard I caved. My computer's screen resolution is set to 800 x 600 pixels and I tried changing it to 1024 x 768 and 1088 x 612 before getting fed up. The monitor is an older NEC 17" LCD, if that matters.

I know that typically "more capability" is usually a good rule of thumb but I wonder if it wouldn't be wasted on me, regardless of camera. I am not an avid photographer and once my landscaping project is done I fear that any camera will just sit and collect dust (the awful truth! ).

I suppose that the A630 and E900 are somewhat "equals", generally speaking. As I have never done a side-by-side comparo I will trust your judgment. I also think that, subconsciously, since my experience with the Fuji F20 was "better" in several subjective ways than was my short time spent with the Canon A550 that I am kind of leaning towards Fuji as a brand in general. Who knows.

As for Samsung cameras getting hamered in reviews - great, that's just what I needed to hear! I have yet tofind a review of the S850 and the Samsung website doesn't even show it on any of their model pages. I guess I just bowed to the Kit's salesman's opinion (plus, I wanted to get out of there after an hour). The S850 doesn't have an optical viewfinder, whichI have decided to live without, and its power-up time is a bit more leisurely than either the F20 or A550. I'll play with it today and see how it handles snow.

Thanks again for your continued advice (Flippedgazelle), it is truly appreciated. Everyone else, too!

I finally found the Samsung S850 product page, NOT at samsungcameraUSA.com (where the manual says to look) but at what appears to be a U.K. variant (note the spelling of "colour" at the top right). I'm surprised that theyused this blurred"Discover the Possibilitie " image

I'm getting used to it. Took a few snaps in "3m" (I think that means megapixel - size is 2048 x 1536) yesterday. I'm just using the S850's internal memory while I try it out; I didn't want to open the Ritz (by Lexar) SD card package in case I needed to return everything. I thought that the display was a bit dim yesterday while taking some snowy pics but now I'm thinking that my Transitions ("photo-gray") eyeglass lenses were contributing to that impression.

It seems to have a nice U/I but, as with anything, it takes some getting used to. Of my time spent with the Fuji F20 (4 days), Canon A550 (2 days), and the Samsung S850 (day and a half) the Fuji's U/I felt the most intuitive. I will try and learn as much as I can stand with the S850, keeping in mind my 10-day return option (I have 7 days left).

I had seen the DC Resource page before I posted the other day but it's not really a review - more of a spec. sheet + Samsung press release.